Roman Catholicism in Austria

Main Churches in Austria [1][2][3]
year	population	Catholics	%	Protestants	%
1951	6,933,905	6,170,084	89.0 %	429,493	6.2%
1961	7,073,807	6,295,075	89.0 %	438,663	6.2%
1971	7,491,526	6,548,316	87.4 %	447,070	6,0%
1981	7,555,338	6,372,645	84.3 %	423,162	5,6%
1991	7,795,786	6,081,454	78.0 %	338,709	5.0%
2001	8,032,926	5,915,421	73.6 %	376,150	4.7%
2011	8,408,121	5,403,722	64.3 %	319,752	3.8%
2015	8,699,730	5,211,422	59.9%	304,259	3.5%

The Catholic Church of Austria, part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, is under the leadership of the Pope, the curia in Rome, and the Austrian Bishops' Conference. The Austrian church is the largest Christian Confession of Austria, with, according to the 2011 census, 5.4 million people (approximately 64.3%). Since 2011, the number of Roman Catholics has fallen, primarily due to secularization. The latest figures (as per the end of 2015) available from the Austrian church itself, list 5.21 million members or 59.9 percent of the total Austrian population.^[2] The number of Sunday churchgoers was around 7.3 percent (as percentage of the total Austrian population that is 623,195 churchgoers out of a total population of 8,584,926 in 2014).

The Church's governing body in Austria is the Austrian Conference of Catholic Bishops, made up of the hierarchy of the two archbishops (Vienna and Salzburg), the bishops and the abbot of territorial abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau. Nevertheless, each bishop is independent in his own diocese, answerable only to the Pope. The current president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. Schönborn belongs to the Central European noble family of Schönborn.

Although Austria has no primate, the archbishop of Salzburg is titled Primus Germaniae (Primate of Germany).

Structure

Austrian dioceses since 1968

• Archdiocese of Vienna with the following suffragan dioceses:
  • Diocese of Eisenstadt
  • Diocese of Linz
  • Diocese of St. Pölten
• Archdiocese of Salzburg with the following suffragans
  • Diocese of Graz-Seckau
  • Diocese of Gurk
  • Diocese of Feldkirch
  • Diocese of Innsbruck
• Territorial Abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau (immediately subject to the Holy See)
• Military Ordinariate of Austria (immediately subject to the Holy See)

Catholic Organizations in Austria

• Katholische Jungschar
• Katholische Jugend

Call to Disobedience organization

The organization Call to Disobedience (Aufruf zum Ungehorsam in German) is an Austrian movement mainly composed of dissident Catholic priests which started in 2006. The movement claims the support of the majority of Austrian Catholic priests and favors ordination of women, married and non-celibate priesthood, allowing Holy Communion to remarried divorcees and non-Catholics which disagrees with teachings of the Catholic Magisterium. The group also believes the way the Church is governed needs reform.^[4]

See also

• Apostolic Nuncio to Austria
• Catholic Church by country

References

1. Austrian Population, retrieved 2 February 2016
2. Catholic Church, Statistical Data 2003 - 2014 in German, retrieved 2 February 2016
3. Lutheran Church, Statistical Data 2015 in German, retrieved 2 February 2016
4. The Catholic Tipping Point

External links

• Roman Catholic statistics for the year 2005